Indiana State University Newsroom

Indiana State University's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment has a new name and a new director as it begins a plan to define and focus the office's role on campus.

The changes are part of an ongoing effort to strengthen data-driven decision making, said Karl Burgher, special assistant to the president for strategic planning.

In announcing the name change to Office of Institutional Research, Burgher also announced that Patty McClintock has been appointed director.

During the past two decades, Institutional Research has gone from producing basic surveys and collecting general student data to including campus-wide testing and, later, adding strategic planning to its data analysis role, Burgher said.

"With strategic planning now part of the President's Office, Institutional Research is taking bold steps to bolster the university's ability to produce focused research that will drive campus-wide, college and departmental decision making," he said.

Burgher said McClintock's appointment as director comes at the start of a five-year strategic plan to "put the research back into Institutional Research," as President Dan Bradley charged the office earlier this year.

The office accumulates and analyzes data for campus use and for submission to regional and national accrediting bodies. To re-establish the office's role as the official gatekeeper of university data, the plan establishes an organizational structure that strengthens the office's ability to coordinate research with faculty and staff associates, affiliates, and consultants, Burgher said.

The addition of graduate student interns and student workers with backgrounds in institutional research-related disciplines, along with the support of a campus advisory board, will help the office manage its workload, he said.

A Indiana State staff member since 1993 when she completed a bachelor's degree in computer technology and electronics technology from the university, McClintock previously held the positions of interim director, senior associate director, associate director, assistant director and testing associate.

McClintock also holds an MBA from Indiana State. She is the author and co-author of numerous journal articles on institutional research and higher education and presents regularly at state and national conferences. She also consults for profit and non-profit entities, including Greene County General Hospital and the Vigo County Public Library. Professionally, she has served as vice president and president of the Indiana Association for Institutional Research; as jobs editor for the Association for Institutional Research; and is a member of the Indiana Postsecondary Data Advisory Group, working with the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

Contact: Karl Burgher, special assistant to the president for strategic planning, Indiana State University, 812-237-4000 or karl.burgher@indstate.edu